Arthur Pape, former Wheaton Park District board member, dies

Arthur Pape was an elected Park District board member in Wheaton for a dozen years and also helped oversee Cosley Zoo in the western suburb.

“Art was just a fantastic contributing member of the park board, and in keeping with his legal background, his demeanor on the board was very even-keeled,” said Dave Blankenship, who served on the Wheaton Park District’s board of commissioners alongside Pape.

Pape, 78, died of complications from a stroke Feb. 15 at Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield, said his daughter Amy Bloomberg. A Wheaton resident since 1975, Pape had suffered a stroke at his home on Feb. 3.

Born in Hartford, Conn., Pape grew up in Edgewood, Pa., outside Pittsburgh. He attended Ohio Wesleyan University for a year before serving for two years in the Army, then earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1962 and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1965, his family said.

Pape’s early legal career took place in Cleveland, and after he left a law firm, he worked in real estate development for a time. He moved to Wheaton in 1975 after he took an in-house real estate counsel job with the First National Bank of Chicago. Pape eventually left the bank and went into private legal practice, first for a large law firm and then later when he opened the Pape Law Firm in Wheaton.

Pape was playing golf with some friends at the Wheaton Park District’s Arrowhead Golf Club when the idea of joining the district board came up.

“They were on the golf course one day, complaining about the condition of the course, and one of them said, ‘We ought to run for the Park District (board) to fix it,’ ” said another daughter, Ann Pape Gerardi. “They all thought that if they were going to be complaining about it, they ought to do something about it. He ran, and he enjoyed every minute of it.”

Pape won his first bid for a four-year term on the district’s board in 1991, and he was re-elected in 1995 and 1999. During his time on the board, he established a reputation as a fiscal conservative, colleagues recalled.

“He had the citizens’ concerns in his mind when he voted on things,” said Paul Didzerekis, who served on the board alongside Pape and was the board’s president from 1993 until 1997. “He didn’t like to see taxes go up, so he was very cautious about voting on anything that increased spending.”

Wheaton Mayor Mike Gresk, who before joining the City Council had served on the Park District board from 1989 until 1993, called Pape “a straightforward, honest and sincere man who always wanted the best for the Wheaton Park District.”

During Pape’s time on the board, the district expanded facilities at its Cosley Zoo — which was renamed from Cosley Animal Farm — established a new teen park along the Illinois Prairie Path, acquired a new park on Orchard Road and spent years planning and coordinating the funding for a pedestrian bridge over the Union Pacific railroad tracks on Wheaton’s west side.

Blankenship noted Pape’s openness at trying “to understand the other side of a topic.”

“He had no agenda at all. He just wanted to do what he thought was best,” Blankenship said.

After declining to seek re-election in 2003, Pape joined the board of the district’s Cosley Foundation, which raises funds to support the zoo’s master plan. He was the foundation’s president from 2009 until 2016, raising money for the construction of the zoo’s bobcat, pig and poultry exhibits, as well as its animal care center.

Pape volunteered for many years at the Western DuPage Special Recreation Association as part of its “Rec and Roll” day program. Each month, Pape and his wife brought their Shetland sheepdog and trained therapy dog, Gordie, and Pape’s guitar to gatherings with the adults with special needs who were served by the group.

“Art and his dog, Gordie, started coming to the Rec and Roll program at WDSRA, and Art would play guitar and his dog would hang out and let the participants pet him, so it was kind of music therapy meets animal therapy, and the participants just adored (Art), and he sang some very unique folk music and they would sing along with him,” said Dori Napolitano, WDSRA's former Rec and Roll day programs manager. “He was just a wonderful man.”

Pape’s wife, Barbara, died in 2015.

In addition to his daughters, Pape is survived by four grandchildren; two sisters, Jenny Pilarowski and Taylor; and a brother, Jim.